WPS League Operations Manager Melanie Fitzgerald said she is "confident we're going to have (a league) next year" after the Western New York Flash won the league's third championship on Saturday, according to Jeff DiVeronica of the ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE. WPS team owners met in Rochester on Saturday and gave “no official statement" about the league's future. Flash Owner Joe Sahlen, whose company Sahlen's Packing is one of the league's sponsors, said, "From a financial standpoint, the league is in good shape. It's the franchise model that needs tweaking" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 8/28). Sahlen said, "We've got lots of momentum now to build the league I feel and we've got the Olympics next year. Now it's our job as owners and interested parties in the league to make sure we can keep that momentum going and grow in the future" (BUFFALO NEWS, 8/29). SI.com’s Grant Wahl wrote after a “thrilling World Cup '11 and an uptick in WPS interest after the WWC, we'll have to wait and see if the six-team league is able to come back for another season.” Teams are “still losing money, and while the Sahlen family had a great first season as the owner of the Flash, the unnecessary drama with Magicjack owner Dan Borislow (litigation threats, verbal abuse of players, league fines, etc.) was bad for the league” (SI.com, 8/27).
GOING OUT WITH A BANG: In N.Y., Andrew Das noted an announced crowd of 10,461 attended Saturday's Flash-Philadelphia Independence championship game at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester, the biggest crowd "for any of the three WPS title games." It "capped a turbulent year for the league, when it shrank to six teams, struggled to draw fans, acknowledged serious problems of income inequality and feuded openly" with Borislow (NYTIMES.com, 8/27). The attendance topped the previous title game record of 7,218, set in L.A. in '09, and also marked the "third largest gathering for a WPS non-doubleheader" (DEMOCRATANDCHRONICLE.com, 8/28). The championship game was "a strong end to a season that saw a definite boost" from the U.S. team's success in the FIFA Women's World Cup (ESPN.com, 8/27).
